Referendum is the only option

Referendum is the only option

The opposition is mounting to the Liberal government’s electoral reform plans. Sooner or later, they’re going to have to give in and call a referendum. It’s the only politically sensible option. It’s the right one, too.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to make the recent election the last that uses a first-past-the-post voting system.

On Sunday, Liberal house leader Dominic Leblanc confirmed the Liberals will do this without holding a referendum.

These are healthy efforts. But they don’t change the fact any change will be made via a majority vote in the House of Commons.

This is not the right path for such a decision. Electoral reform is different than tinkering with the tax code, or amending a couple of sections in the Criminal Code. It will fundamentally alter the structure and composition of future governments.

The Liberals may have campaigned on changing the system, but Trudeau never voiced his preferred alternative.

It’s possible the Liberals aren’t eager to hold a referendum because they know they will lose it.

The key members of Trudeau’s team who worked for the Ontario Liberal government no doubt remember the 2007 referendum in which voters rejected reform.

In a column for Postmedia Network, Conservative MP and democratic reform critic Scott Reid rightly notes: “If politicians are left in charge of designing a new electoral system, they will be unable to resist the temptation to choose a system which will, based on the dynamics of Canadian voter behaviour, have the effect of benefiting the party in power.”

This issue transcends partisan politics. On his blog Ujjal Dosanjh, Trudeau’s former Liberal caucus member and former NDP premier of British Columbia, criticizes the current plan: “It is my view any major change to the first past the post electoral system – unlike electoral term change and the proposed change to the appointment of senators – is a major quasi constitutional change. It mustn’t be made by a simple majority vote of those in parliament representing only 39.5% of the electorate.”

Conservative leader Rona Ambrose was right when she tweeted “Liberals show arrogance in ruling out referendum.” Trudeau would be wise to reconsider.